O Pioneers!

by Willa Cather

  VI

  At dinner that day Alexandra said she thought they must reallymanage to go over to the Shabatas' that afternoon. "It's not oftenI let three days go by without seeing Marie. She will think I haveforsaken her, now that my old friend has come back."

  After the men had gone back to work, Alexandra put on a white dressand her sun-hat, and she and Carl set forth across the fields."You see we have kept up the old path, Carl. It has been so nicefor me to feel that there was a friend at the other end of itagain."

  Carl smiled a little ruefully. "All the same, I hope it hasn'tbeen QUITE the same."

  Alexandra looked at him with surprise. "Why, no, of course not.Not the same. She could not very well take your place, if that'swhat you mean. I'm friendly with all my neighbors, I hope. ButMarie is really a companion, some one I can talk to quite frankly.You wouldn't want me to be more lonely than I have been, wouldyou?"

  Carl laughed and pushed back the triangular lock of hair with theedge of his hat. "Of course I don't. I ought to be thankful thatthis path hasn't been worn by--well, by friends with more pressingerrands than your little Bohemian is likely to have." He pausedto give Alexandra his hand as she stepped over the stile. "Areyou the least bit disappointed in our coming together again?" heasked abruptly. "Is it the way you hoped it would be?"

  Alexandra smiled at this. "Only better. When I've thought aboutyour coming, I've sometimes been a little afraid of it. You havelived where things move so fast, and everything is slow here; thepeople slowest of all. Our lives are like the years, all made upof weather and crops and cows. How you hated cows!" She shook herhead and laughed to herself.

  "I didn't when we milked together. I walked up to the pasturecorners this morning. I wonder whether I shall ever be able totell you all that I was thinking about up there. It's a strangething, Alexandra; I find it easy to be frank with you about everythingunder the sun except--yourself!"

  "You are afraid of hurting my feelings, perhaps." Alexandra lookedat him thoughtfully.

  "No, I'm afraid of giving you a shock. You've seen yourself forso long in the dull minds of the people about you, that if I wereto tell you how you seem to me, it would startle you. But you mustsee that you astonish me. You must feel when people admire you."

  Alexandra blushed and laughed with some confusion. "I felt thatyou were pleased with me, if you mean that."

  "And you've felt when other people were pleased with you?" heinsisted.

  "Well, sometimes. The men in town, at the banks and the countyoffices, seem glad to see me. I think, myself, it is more pleasantto do business with people who are clean and healthy-looking," sheadmitted blandly.

  Carl gave a little chuckle as he opened the Shabatas' gate for her."Oh, do you?" he asked dryly.

  There was no sign of life about the Shabatas' house except a bigyellow cat, sunning itself on the kitchen doorstep.

  Alexandra took the path that led to the orchard. "She often sitsthere and sews. I didn't telephone her we were coming, because Ididn't want her to go to work and bake cake and freeze ice-cream.She'll always make a party if you give her the least excuse. Doyou recognize the apple trees, Carl?"

  Linstrum looked about him. "I wish I had a dollar for every bucketof water I've carried for those trees. Poor father, he was aneasy man, but he was perfectly merciless when it came to wateringthe orchard."

  "That's one thing I like about Germans; they make an orchard growif they can't make anything else. I'm so glad these trees belongto some one who takes comfort in them. When I rented this place,the tenants never kept the orchard up, and Emil and I used to comeover and take care of it ourselves. It needs mowing now. Thereshe is, down in the corner. Maria-a-a!" she called.

  A recumbent figure started up from the grass and came running towardthem through the flickering screen of light and shade.

  "Look at her! Isn't she like a little brown rabbit?" Alexandralaughed.

  Maria ran up panting and threw her arms about Alexandra. "Oh, Ihad begun to think you were not coming at all, maybe. I knew youwere so busy. Yes, Emil told me about Mr. Linstrum being here.Won't you come up to the house?"

  "Why not sit down there in your corner? Carl wants to see theorchard. He kept all these trees alive for years, watering themwith his own back."

  Marie turned to Carl. "Then I'm thankful to you, Mr. Linstrum. We'dnever have bought the place if it hadn't been for this orchard, andthen I wouldn't have had Alexandra, either." She gave Alexandra'sarm a little squeeze as she walked beside her. "How nice your dresssmells, Alexandra; you put rosemary leaves in your chest, like Itold you."

  She led them to the northwest corner of the orchard, sheltered onone side by a thick mulberry hedge and bordered on the other by awheatfield, just beginning to yellow. In this corner the grounddipped a little, and the blue-grass, which the weeds had driven outin the upper part of the orchard, grew thick and luxuriant. Wildroses were flaming in the tufts of bunchgrass along the fence.Under a white mulberry tree there was an old wagon-seat. Besideit lay a book and a workbasket.

  "You must have the seat, Alexandra. The grass would stain yourdress," the hostess insisted. She dropped down on the groundat Alexandra's side and tucked her feet under her. Carl sat ata little distance from the two women, his back to the wheatfield,and watched them. Alexandra took off her shade-hat and threw it onthe ground. Marie picked it up and played with the white ribbons,twisting them about her brown fingers as she talked. They made apretty picture in the strong sunlight, the leafy pattern surroundingthem like a net; the Swedish woman so white and gold, kindly andamused, but armored in calm, and the alert brown one, her full lipsparted, points of yellow light dancing in her eyes as she laughedand chattered. Carl had never forgotten little Marie Tovesky'seyes, and he was glad to have an opportunity to study them. Thebrown iris, he found, was curiously slashed with yellow, the colorof sunflower honey, or of old amber. In each eye one of thesestreaks must have been larger than the others, for the effect wasthat of two dancing points of light, two little yellow bubbles,such as rise in a glass of champagne. Sometimes they seemed likethe sparks from a forge. She seemed so easily excited, to kindlewith a fierce little flame if one but breathed upon her. "Whata waste," Carl reflected. "She ought to be doing all that for asweetheart. How awkwardly things come about!"

  It was not very long before Marie sprang up out of the grass again."Wait a moment. I want to show you something." She ran away anddisappeared behind the low-growing apple trees.

  "What a charming creature," Carl murmured. "I don't wonder thather husband is jealous. But can't she walk? does she always run?"

  Alexandra nodded. "Always. I don't see many people, but I don'tbelieve there are many like her, anywhere."

  Marie came back with a branch she had broken from an apricot tree,laden with pale yellow, pink-cheeked fruit. She dropped it besideCarl. "Did you plant those, too? They are such beautiful littletrees."

  Carl fingered the blue-green leaves, porous like blotting-paper andshaped like birch leaves, hung on waxen red stems. "Yes, I thinkI did. Are these the circus trees, Alexandra?"

  "Shall I tell her about them?" Alexandra asked. "Sit down likea good girl, Marie, and don't ruin my poor hat, and I'll tell youa story. A long time ago, when Carl and I were, say, sixteen andtwelve, a circus came to Hanover and we went to town in our wagon,with Lou and Oscar, to see the parade. We hadn't money enough togo to the circus. We followed the parade out to the circus groundsand hung around until the show began and the crowd went inside thetent. Then Lou was afraid we looked foolish standing outside inthe pasture, so we went back to Hanover feeling very sad. Therewas a man in the streets selling apricots, and we had never seenany before. He had driven down from somewhere up in the Frenchcountry, and he was selling them twenty-five cents a peck. We hada little money our fathers had given us for candy, and I boughttwo pecks and Carl bought one. They cheered us a good deal, andwe saved all the seeds and planted them. Up to the time Carl wentaway, they hadn't borne at all."

  "And now he's
come back to eat them," cried Marie, nodding at Carl."That IS a good story. I can remember you a little, Mr. Linstrum.I used to see you in Hanover sometimes, when Uncle Joe took me totown. I remember you because you were always buying pencils andtubes of paint at the drug store. Once, when my uncle left me atthe store, you drew a lot of little birds and flowers for me on apiece of wrapping-paper. I kept them for a long while. I thoughtyou were very romantic because you could draw and had such blackeyes."

  Carl smiled. "Yes, I remember that time. Your uncle bought yousome kind of a mechanical toy, a Turkish lady sitting on an ottomanand smoking a hookah, wasn't it? And she turned her head backwardsand forwards."

  "Oh, yes! Wasn't she splendid! I knew well enough I ought notto tell Uncle Joe I wanted it, for he had just come back from thesaloon and was feeling good. You remember how he laughed? Shetickled him, too. But when we got home, my aunt scolded him forbuying toys when she needed so many things. We wound our lady upevery night, and when she began to move her head my aunt used tolaugh as hard as any of us. It was a music-box, you know, and theTurkish lady played a tune while she smoked. That was how she madeyou feel so jolly. As I remember her, she was lovely, and had agold crescent on her turban."

  Half an hour later, as they were leaving the house, Carl and Alexandrawere met in the path by a strapping fellow in overalls and a blueshirt. He was breathing hard, as if he had been running, and wasmuttering to himself.

  Marie ran forward, and, taking him by the arm, gave him a littlepush toward her guests. "Frank, this is Mr. Linstrum."

  Frank took off his broad straw hat and nodded to Alexandra. Whenhe spoke to Carl, he showed a fine set of white teeth. He was burneda dull red down to his neckband, and there was a heavy three-days'stubble on his face. Even in his agitation he was handsome, buthe looked a rash and violent man.

  Barely saluting the callers, he turned at once to his wife andbegan, in an outraged tone, "I have to leave my team to drive theold woman Hiller's hogs out-a my wheat. I go to take dat old womanto de court if she ain't careful, I tell you!"

  His wife spoke soothingly. "But, Frank, she has only her lame boyto help her. She does the best she can."

  Alexandra looked at the excited man and offered a suggestion. "Whydon't you go over there some afternoon and hog-tight her fences?You'd save time for yourself in the end."

  Frank's neck stiffened. "Not-a-much, I won't. I keep my hogshome. Other peoples can do like me. See? If that Louis can mendshoes, he can mend fence."

  "Maybe," said Alexandra placidly; "but I've found it sometimes paysto mend other people's fences. Good-bye, Marie. Come to see mesoon."

  Alexandra walked firmly down the path and Carl followed her.

  Frank went into the house and threw himself on the sofa, his faceto the wall, his clenched fist on his hip. Marie, having seen herguests off, came in and put her hand coaxingly on his shoulder.

  "Poor Frank! You've run until you've made your head ache, nowhaven't you? Let me make you some coffee."

  "What else am I to do?" he cried hotly in Bohemian. "Am I to letany old woman's hogs root up my wheat? Is that what I work myselfto death for?"

  "Don't worry about it, Frank. I'll speak to Mrs. Hiller again.But, really, she almost cried last time they got out, she was sosorry."

  Frank bounced over on his other side. "That's it; you always sidewith them against me. They all know it. Anybody here feels freeto borrow the mower and break it, or turn their hogs in on me.They know you won't care!"

  Marie hurried away to make his coffee. When she came back, he wasfast asleep. She sat down and looked at him for a long while, verythoughtfully. When the kitchen clock struck six she went out toget supper, closing the door gently behind her. She was alwayssorry for Frank when he worked himself into one of these rages, andshe was sorry to have him rough and quarrelsome with his neighbors.She was perfectly aware that the neighbors had a good deal to putup with, and that they bore with Frank for her sake.